1st November 2018 –Destiny Pharma issued an announcement, which is
summarized as follows:
Collaboration to investigate potential antimicrobial
candidates from the Company’s XF drug platform against infections associated
with biofilms
Destiny Pharma today announces it has been jointly
awarded a National Biofilms Innovation Centre (NBIC) funded research
collaboration with the University of Southampton. The project is intended to
examine the use of the Company’s novel XF compounds to prevent, control, and
eradicate chronic clinical infections with underlying biofilm involvement, such
as those in diabetic foot ulcers and cystic fibrosis.
There is a significant unmet medical need in both the
treatment and management of biofilms which can cause and exacerbate serious
infections. Destiny Pharma’s XF compounds have already shown the potential to
eradicate bacteria, such as MRSA, within a biofilm. The NBIC funded
collaboration plans to expand on this data using laboratory and clinical
microbial biofilm models and the expertise of the team at the University of
Southampton’s Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences. Financial terms of
the collaboration have not been disclosed.
In the US, 1.7 million biofilm-related infections, (e.g.
urinary tract, surgical, respiratory and circulatory infections) are annually
reported (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Report, 2007). The annual
estimation of the cost of biofilm infections in the US is $94
billion, while annual
biofilm-related healthcare-associated infections cost the NHS ￡1
billion p.a.
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